scrambling in range of Las Vegas?
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Are there some fun or scenic easy-class-5 / 4 / class 3 rock routes within like two hours drive from Las Vegas? |
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Bridge Mountain in Red Rock is a very fun scramble. |
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Agree with Bridge Mountain. It's a nice long hike with interesting route finding and variety of terrain, with mild, fun exposure up top. Take a compass and headlamp. I left late in the day and needed the compass to get down in the dark (in the snow). I saw no one on the route the whole day. |
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Get the most recent hiking guide book by Branch Whitney. Lots of great scrambles in there. You'll love the scary class 3. He also has a website. Bridge Mtn is great. |
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kenr wrote:Are there some fun or scenic easy-class-5 / 4 / class 3 rock routes within like two hours drive from Las Vegas? I'm visiting the week after Thanksgiving, and of course I'm bringing my rope and gear for climbing at Red Rocks (and some limestone?), but I'd like to take some break days off from climbing. I love scrambling on ridge lines in in the high Sierra eastside, so I'm wondering if there's anything comparable around Las Vegas. Or should I just plan on driving to Zion NP? Or maybe it's narrow canyons I should be visiting for fun scrambling? Thanks for ideas and hints. KenKen, you may be familiar with this website- if not, it's worth checking out, despite the name. birdandhike.com/Hike/_Hike_… Here's Bridge Mountain birdandhike.com/Hike/Red_Ro… A few years ago we meant to go to Lovell Canyon americansouthwest.net/slot_… but never did because of poor weather. If you like rock hounding, the mineral club that manages the area was very generous in giving us permission to collect. I can look up the contact info if you PM me. |
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Go up one of the descents like Mescalito, Black Velvet, or Mt. Wilson. Traverse Browstone Wall into Gunsight. |
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Thanks a lot for the idea (and the warning, since daylight will be short when I try it). |
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TomCaldwell wrote:Go up one of the descents like Mescalito, Black Velvet, or Mt. Wilson. Traverse Browstone Wall into Gunsight.Scrambling up descent routes is a creative idea -- thanks for the specific suggestions. |
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DebLee wrote:Get the most recent hiking guide book by Branch Whitney.I will surely get that book. And I've started looking at the BirdAndHike website. Thanks a lot -- all those ideas give me a whole new perspective on Las Vegas. Ken |
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Again thanks for all the suggestions -- and the B W hiking guidebook is outstanding. Mark E Dixon wrote:A few years ago we meant to go to Lovell Canyon americansouthwest.net/slot_… but never did because of poor weatherWe figured out that Lovell canyon is pretty much the same as the "Anniversary Narrows" in the Branch Whitney guidebook. So yesterday afternoon Sharon and I drove out by Lake Mead. Found that the approach road had been repaired. Hiked to getting near the start of the narrows. Got a special introduction to the Nevada backcountry: the sound of a semi-automatic weapon firing. With a remarkable "alien" reverberation sound. We decided to retreat. Since Las Vegas is way out on the early end of the Pacific time zone, there wasn't enough daylight left to try a different great hike by Lake Mead. So after checking out the indoor climbing gym near the airport (seemed to have more nicer TR setups than the other gym), we parked on The Strip and did our first Nevada "hike" there. Our main achievement was to walk around most of both sides of The Strip, including the full perimeter of the main floor of the MGM and the main floor of the Bellagio -- without playing anything or purchasing anything. I wanted to buy some snack food, and I was willing to pay an inflated price (once), but the offerings of the snack shops we tried seemed uninspiring -- compared with other innovative food places around Las Vegas available by Web search. So we saved our snack purchases until after we drove out. I was surprised to discover that Las Vegas has a German bakery, in addition to a French bakery (and in addition to the expected U.S. national brands of bakery-coffee). Then also a new Israeli bakery. And a Palestinian bakery. Ken |
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Scrambling the northwest Calico Hills ... |
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kenr wrote: Got a special introduction to the Nevada backcountry: the sound of a semi-automatic weapon firing. With a remarkable "alien" reverberation sound.There is a shooting area just above the canyon there that gets used regularly. It's away from the hiking trail but does kind of ruin the ambiance. For ridge traverses, there is a fun one starting from Red Springs up past Turtle Shell boulder and heading towards the Fox. You have the first pullout on your left and Calico on the right. It's a fun easy scramble with a few unrecorded boulder problems scattered around. I dropped down by the Fox but you could probably keep going, might get a little tougher though. |